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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29148081">Time's Daughter</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aelwyn/pseuds/Aelwyn'>Aelwyn</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>I Said I Wasn't Making More "Vignettes" But I Was WRONG [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU where Rose and the Doctor were married before Canary Warf, Dimension Cannon, Does not go past Ten, Donna - Freeform, Evelyn Smythe - Freeform, Extra Characters Included Are:, F/M, Fix-It, Ian and Barbara, Irving Braxiatel - Freeform, Jack - Freeform, Jamie - Freeform, Jo - Freeform, Lucie - Freeform, Malcolm Taylor - Freeform, Mickey - Freeform, Narvin - Freeform, Nyssa - Freeform, Prompt Fic, Reunion, Romana II - Freeform, Rose is a time lady, Susan - Freeform, Tegan - Freeform, The TARDIS is a shipping ship, The only people with sense are the Companions, Wilf - Freeform, ace - Freeform, jackie - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:54:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>18,824</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29148081</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aelwyn/pseuds/Aelwyn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The last time they ever saw one another he burnt up a sun just to say goodbye. He said it was impossible.</p><p>But Rose lives and breathes the impossible. She is the impossible, and redefines what that means every single day. </p><p>So who is he to tell her what can and cannot be done? </p><p>No matter which version of him she meets, she’ll always prove him wrong... and he’ll never be more glad for it when she does.</p><p> </p><p>A series of short oneshots in a multi-chapter story about Dimension Jumping Rose, with a Reunion and a fix-it at the very end.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>All Classic Doctors/Rose Tyler, Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>I Said I Wasn't Making More "Vignettes" But I Was WRONG [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2139498</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>170</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue: The Doomsday Dimension</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/TugboatG/gifts">TugboatG</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/GroovyKat/gifts">GroovyKat</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spiritofeowyn/gifts">Spiritofeowyn</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimeLadyHope/gifts">TimeLadyHope</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hudine/gifts">Hudine</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Inari/gifts">Lady_Inari</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_narwhals_awaken/gifts">The_narwhals_awaken</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Special thanks to TugboatG for plot prompts.</p><p> </p><p>PLEASE NOTE: I am not taking prompt requests in the comments. The prompts were all collected prior to the series being published at all.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Test one, test one, ready,” Dr. Malcolm Taylor called from his spot by the breach. Rose smiled and nodded, giving him a double thumbs up from where she stood on the ‘launch pad’ with the Dimension Cannon strapped around her waist and chest in one of the most cumbersome, uncomfortable halter vests she had ever had the misfortune of wearing. The crazy genius had quickly become her closest friend when Torchwood and UNIT had completed their merger, even over Mickey. When she said ‘closest,’ what she actually meant was ‘won’t spill anything I say to my mother.’ Mickey in comparison, her best mate, was a rat. And rats could not be trusted as confidantes when they were afraid of incurring the wrath of Jackie Tyler, which was why Malcolm was her confidante friend.</p>
<p></p><div>
  <p>Mickey bore no ill will toward her for this and was relieved he didn’t have to bear the guilt of spilling his guts over her deepest most vulnerable secrets to Jackie.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Now remember lass, we’ll send you out for one minute, then you hit the button. If it doesn’t activate to reel you back in in two minutes, we’ll pull the plug from our end. Understood?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Launch me into the Void,” Rose retorted. Malcolm laughed and hit the sequence, and with a sickening jolt Rose was yanked out of the lab space in Big Ben and into the universe.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Right away, she knew something was wrong. It was like she was caught between dimensions, the device trying to warp her out of it only partially succeeding and tearing her in several different directions at once. With one last agonizing wrench and a silent scream, Rose fell into blackness and mercifully the pain ended.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>When she came awake, her entire body ached. Her head was exploding. All her senses were on fire and the world swam in and out of focus, her heart rattling erratically seemingly all throughout her chest cavity in a way that felt like she was dying all over again. She fell back into the warm nothingness of unconsciousness.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>Three Weeks, Two Days, Nine Hours, Twelve Minutes, and Thirty-Nine Seconds. Forty. Forty-One...</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Her eyes flew open.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Everywhere she looked, golden motes drifted through the air like dust in sunbeams. Except it was the dead of night, and wherever she was it must have been a new moon because there wasn’t even a sliver of moonlight to light her surroundings. How she knew that she’d been unconscious for that long, she had no idea. But she had.</p>
</div><div>
  <p><em>In a healing coma,</em> a voice whispered softly in the back of her mind. Rose jolted and let out a soft squeak as she fell down a steep incline into a creek, the ice cold water not nearly as freezing against her bare skin as she’d thought it would be.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>She was naked. She was naked out in the open in an unfamiliar environment and she-</p>
</div><div>
  <p>...</p>
</div><div>
  <p>And her eyes were glowing molten gold.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Any shade of brown she had once had was gone. Her dark blonde hair - especially in her neglected roots - had turned a rich honey gold, platinum streaks running throughout the entirety of it as it fell past her shoulders and most likely down the the middle of her back. Shivering with suppressed panic rather than cold, Rose took inventory of her stark form and whimpered as the panic boiled over. Every little scar or sun freckle was gone. Even that naughty little tattoo she’d gotten on a dare one night after clubbing with Shareen in an unmentionable place was gone. Not a mark anywhere.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>What...?</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Heat clawed its way up her throat and she coughed, glowing golden dust issuing from her mouth.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Oh God,” she whispered hoarsely, slowly bringing her hands up to her chest and resting them over each heart.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>~§§~</p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>You’re a Time Lady.</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p>That single sentence kept repeating itself on a loop in her mind as she stumbled up a worn wagon track through a sheep pasture, clutching her arms in her hands and feeling every bit as horribly exposed as she actually was. There was a barn in the distance, much more clear than it would have been if she were a human, and she kept stumbling in what she was sure appeared to be a drunken canter as the movement of the planet underneath her feet kept her perpetually from finding her balance.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Rose was in serious sensory overload, senses she hadn’t had before bombarding her with unfamiliar information amidst familiar senses heightened to such a degree they were nauseating. Smells, sounds, sight. <em>Time...</em></p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>You’re a Time Lady.</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p>The barn had a horse blanket in it, but it was better than nothing as she moved on toward the farmhouse and knocked on the door. The blanket was clutched to her frame for all it was worth, but after several minutes and some small investigation she determined that no one was home.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Utilizing some lock-picking skills that she’d garnered during her time with the Doctor, Rose let herself in and eased softly through the house. Every once in a while she’d call out a soft, pitiful ‘hello,’ and each time she was met by deafening silence. Making her way to the master bedroom, she held her breath before easing the door open and finding the room beyond empty. Letting out that breath, she rifled around in the closet and came up with an assortment of male only clothes in an oversized flannel, a standard black tee shirt, and a pair of worn overalls. She could work with that.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Rolling up the cuffs on the overalls and dropping the flannel on top of the ensemble, she picked up a pair of open-toed flip flops and took a pair of scissors from the kitchen to the heels. Not the most comfortable of outfits, but better than nothing.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>...Literally.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Clothed, Rose ran out of the farmhouse and locked the door behind her before striking out down the drive toward civilization.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>You’re a Time Lady.</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p>The planet was... boring. Sure, there was nothing happening - at all - but when you factored in the fact that it was all monochromatic in its natural color as well as the man-made dwellings, everything started to blend together to the point where Rose almost didn’t notice when she walked into the town because of how entirely uninteresting it all was.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>But back to the nothing happening. There wasn’t <em>anything </em>happening. At all. At first glance, the town was just as abandoned as the farmhouse had been. An eerie stillness permeated everything to the point where it seemed even the insects had disappeared, and Rose rubbed at her temples as several timelines fractured and broke to pieces all around her like a giant temporal spiderweb. Oddly enough, the new sense she was most comfortable with was time, but then again she supposed that had something to do with Bad Wolf. Y’know, like her turning into a Time Lady in the first place.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You’re a Time Lady!”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Rose jumped a good foot into the air and screamed as an unfamiliar male voice spoke right next to her, and when she spun around it was to see an equally-startled man with unkempt stubble and a thinning hairline gaping at her. She blinked for a few times before replying.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Why the Hell are you dressed like a Penguin!?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>The man, who had the misfortune of being on the shorter side of average height for his gender and was also dressed in a white robe with black tabards that fell to his feet, quickly got over his surprise and scowled.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>...It was more of a pout, really...</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Author’s Note:</p>
</div><div>
  <p>As you can see I’m not going to follow the prompts 100% but also, chapter one is a direct continuation of where the prologue left off so more of the prompt will make it’s way in there.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Prompt Requirements:</p>
</div><div>
  <p>First jump, Rose lands on a monochromatic and extremely boring planet. Smiling is forbidden, and she has no idea that’s a thing because she doesn’t have a translation matrix. Running from the authorities for being polite is not how she thought this would go.</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Eight at War: Angel on the Battlefield</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Due to a certain Big Finish release today, I felt I needed to get this out for some people today.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Special thanks to Hudine and GroovyKat for plot prompts.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I’m not a <em>Penguin</em>,” the frowning man said slowly, as if speaking to an infant. His annoyance was clear as he smoothed out his outfit. “I’m Coordinator Narvinectralonum of the CIA.”</p>
<p></p><div>
  <p>“...Kay? First off, bit of a mouthful, ya got a nickname? Second, I thought the CIA was an American thing.” The man’s annoyance faded once again into surprise as his tense posture melted into a prim stance of propriety.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...Narvin. And by CIA I mean the Celestial Intervention Agency.” No comprehension from Rose made his surprise evolve further into confusion. “The <em>Gallifreyan </em>Celestial Intervention Agency?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Gallifreyan,” Rose repeated numbly, and it didn’t escape her notice that Narvin breathed a tiny sigh of relief that something had finally registered. He probably thought she had brain damage. “My hus- ehm. My <em>Bond Mate </em>mentioned his home planet on occasion, but I’ve never been before.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Never be- what House and Chapter were you Loomed from!? It’s a large disgrace for a Time Lady to have been abandoned and raised outside of Gallifrey!” Oh, he was outraged now, but apparently on her behalf. Outraged <em>and </em>confused. Rose shrugged, squirming slightly with unease.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Easy. I was born human, and something happened and... Now I’m not anymore.” Her head cocked slightly to the side in thought. “You’re a Time Lord, then.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...Yes?” Narvin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, though a worried expression had creased a frown in his brow as he beckoned them to sit on the edge of a dry stone fountain. “I think you’d better explain everything. Leave nothing out.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’ll try, but I don’t exactly know where to start.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“How about... when you first became aware of Time Lords?” The patient tone, Rose was sure, was because someone had made him take classes on tact, because it was all too easy for her to tell he was becoming increasingly irritated and impatient. Vaguely, she wondered whose shoe had been threatened to hit his head as she mulled over her life story and began telling it.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I was just a shop girl in London, really. Closing up after the day, taking the lottery money down to our building’s technician. Wilson.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“And when was this?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“May, I think... May 2005? Maybe late April. But I got locked into this room in the basement, yeah? And the plastic mannequins start coming to life.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Autons, controlled by a Nestene Consciousness.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Yep.” She popped the ‘p’ and fell silent for a moment. “Would’ve died, you know, if he hadn’t found me. But after I helped him get rid of the Autons, we-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Who?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“The Doctor.” Narvin let out a long, tired, extremely exasperated groan and Rose bit her lip to try and stifle her giggles. “Guessing you know him personally then, get a reaction of annoyance like that.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Meddling nuisance... he makes my job at <em>least </em>ten times more difficult than it has to be, I’ll have you know.” He blew out a breath and rubbed at his temples. “That debunks one theory.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“That theory being...?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“That you were involved in a Chameleon Arch that went horribly wrong.” He waved a hand dismissively at her bemused expression. “It’s not important, I assure you. Loathe as I am to suggest anything pertaining to the Doctor, please continue with your story.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...Right...” Rose blinked and forged ahead while he frowned at her contemplatively, the result of his intense gaze making her squirm a bit in discomfort. “Well, we traveled for a while, just the two of us, but eventually we ran into an ex-Time Agent named Jack. The Agency had stolen two years’ worth of his memories, so he was trying to con them and got us instead. Jack was a lot of fun, but I don’t think the Doctor liked him as much as I did. He was too flirty. You know, with anything.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Fifty-first century humans can have that effect,” Narvin remarked dryly. Rose smirked.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Yeah, well he was handy in a fight. We got trapped on this game station thing, a massive broadcasting satellite station above Earth. And there was a fleet of Daleks outside of it, and it was a no-win scenario. It was so bad the Doctor tricked me into the TARDIS and set the fast return switch to take me back home. But I wasn’t having it. Tyler women are stubborn like that, y’know, and no know-it-all Time Lord was gonna stop me from being with my partner when he needed me.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Uh, partner? As in...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Yeah. That’s really not important to the story, thanks. The next bit is though, it probably has something to do with all this. See, everywhere we went we kept seeing these words pop up, ‘Bad Wolf?’ And I didn’t really understand what they meant until I did what I did, but... they were a message, to lead myself back. And to do that I needed to fly the TARDIS, but I didn’t know how. What I <em>did know </em>was that the ship was alive, and that she had a Heart, and that I needed to communicate with her. So I fought tooth and nail to get in, and honestly I’m 100% certain it had zero to do with my effectiveness and more to do with the TARDIS deeming me worthy or something, but she opened her Heart to me. And I looked in, and-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“<em>You looked into the </em><b><em>Time Vortex!?</em></b><em>” </em>Narvin exclaimed, making an odd sort of choking sound as he quickly stood and gaped down at her. Rose raised an eyebrow, pointed at the fountain basin, and waited until he sat. “I- that is to say- No human should have survived that.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“For a short time, I held all of Time in my fingers,” Rose murmured. “And the only thing holding me together was my determination and- well, and love. And I did it. I saved them both. But you’re right, it was killing me. The Doctor had to take it out of me and return it to the TARDIS, and doing that made him Regenerate.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“L-” Narvin blinked. “Sorry, I never caught your name.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Rose. Rose Tyler.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Pleasure. Look, Rose. If it made a Time Lord regenerate, what do you think it <em>should have done </em>to a human?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I never questioned anything because I honestly didn’t even remember any of it until a few weeks after...” She trailed off, biting her lip. “After the beach. But that’s ehm. That’s a bit further in my story so I’ll save that.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You need to be seen by a medical professional,” Narvin sighed, rubbing at his temples again. “A <em>Gallifreyan licensed </em>medical professional. Unfortunately, I am not capable of fulfilling that role. The most I can do is arrest you for being on a planet that it is illegal to travel to due to its status as a probable Dalek testing site.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“What, the entire planet?” Silence. “Uh... you wouldn’t really arrest me, would you? I didn’t even expect to come here.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Until I know you didn’t purposefully change your species in an illegal attempt to gain Time Lord Citizenship, I can’t say anything. In regards to trespassing, I don’t know why you’re here.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Right.” She blinked, swallowing, and then began talking rapid-fire to prove her innocence. “So, Time Vortex, Bad Wolf, Doctor Regenerates. We travel for a while, just the two of us, he invites my ex-boyfriend like a total moron, then snogs another woman. I was <em>not </em>happy about that, by the way. End up in a parallel world, Cybermen, the Ex stays behind, we end up on a planet orbiting a black hole that’s a prison for the actual devil. Almost lose each other. So, he proposes.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...Proposes what?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Marriage.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...Wait, the <em>Doctor is your Bond Mate!?</em>”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Yeah, why?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Narvin just sat there, speechless, eyes wide and his jaw hanging slightly slack as he stared at her. Frowning, Rose poked him in the chest and blinked when this produced no reaction. Sighing, she decided to go by the tried and true Jackie method and wound her arm back.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>The sound of her hand connecting with his face was audible as he went sprawling on the ground and clutched at his cheek, glaring at her.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“What was that for!?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You were like. You were catatonic, Narvin.” Rose rolled her eyes. “It honestly can’t be that huge of a shock to you that the Doctor has a-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“<em>Do not finish that sentence,</em>” he warned on a low growl. “The entire concept is cursed.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Hands where we can see them!”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Cursed,” Narvin sighed as a band of locals approached them with farm equipment that was obviously being repurposed as weaponry.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Who are you?” The leader asked. It didn’t escape Rose’s notice that the entire group was comprised of men. And, honestly...</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Oh G- Oh wow, they’re like. Space Puritans,” she whispered. Narvin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Just what we need, you cross-dressing in front of space Puritans,” he murmured back.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Me? I’m not the only one, you look like you’re wearing a dress to them! Good job we didn’t bring any blokes wearing kilts.” Rose smiled at the leader only to squeak when he immediately bound her wrists with twine. “Oi! What did I do?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“It is forbidden for an unmarried woman to flirt with a married man,” came the terse response. Narvin was bound at her side and they were led toward one of the minimalist drab buildings.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Mate, if you think that was flirting, I’d hate to see what a date looks like for your lot. Where’d you even come from, anyway!? We’ve been at this fountain for- for twenty-seven minutes, and nine seconds- and- blimey. I get it now. Apocalyptic Space Puritans. Ooh, bad combination...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“For the love of Omega, shut up,” Narvin sighed.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>They were led down a flight of stairs into an underground concrete structure before being shoved into what was obviously a repurposed supply closet, the door locking behind them, and Rose shrugged before sitting with her back against the wall on the floor. Narvin chose a packing crate, the space so cramped that his calf ended up brushing her knee as they tried to get comfortable even though he’d tried to sit as far away from her as possible.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“So...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Hm?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Figure I might as well pass the time, finish that story you asked for,” Rose suggested.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...Might as well,” Narvin murmured. “You paused when speaking of your... <em>ahem, </em>engagement.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Yeah.” Rose drew her knees up against her chest and rested her chin on one of them. “He proposed, I said yes, we Bonded. We’d been dating for a while, really. Way back before he’d regenerated in fact. So, proposing? It was basically saying ‘let’s get married as soon as possible’ rather than marking an intent for the occasion. Found this... gorgeous place really, there were flying Manta Ray things in the air, and we bonded there. So, we go back to my mum’s because we figure she has a right to know, Y’know, and that’s when that other parallel world started causing problems in <em>this </em>world. Daleks and Cybermen and really, really stupid government agencies, and... we closed the rift, sent the Daleks <em>and </em>the Cybermen straight into the Void, but... I got trapped on the other side. And I’ve been trying to get back, but the first jump landed me here, it felt like dying, and I’m no closer to seeing him again...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Narvin’s eyes widened comically as she bit her lip and started crying. He couldn’t even handle his <em>own </em>emotions, thank you very much, much less deal with someone else’s.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>...Well, someone else’s when they weren’t Leela, that is.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Ehm, why didn’t the Doctor merely cross over and get you back?” He asked awkwardly.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“The wall was so broken that the slightest touch would have shattered both realities, he couldn’t bring the TARDIS through,” Rose sniffed, wiping angrily at her eyes. “God, look at me. All I have to do is <em>think </em>about the Bond tearing and I turn into a sobbing mess...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...I’ve ah, I’ve heard that losing a bond mate feels remarkably like dying oneself. Personally I feel that crying is a waste of energy, but from the horrors I’ve heard about someone losing a partner... well. It’s expected, really. Ehm... Honestly I don’t know how to help, I wasn’t trained for this-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“What, for how to deal with a weepy woman?” Rose scoffed. Narvin winced and rubbed at the back of his neck.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“How to deal with a weepy anything, really, including a weepy- well, me.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...That’s sad.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’m aware.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Rose hesitated for a few moments before reaching out and taking his hand.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>The moment their bare fingers touched, she realized her mistake; Time Lords were a touch telepath species, and she had no shielding even though she was now telepathic. Narvin, accustomed to both the absence of such a problem as they had landed themselves in and also being around people with sufficient shielding, gasped in horror as he all but fell into her mind and got swamped by every memory, thought, and feeling rattling around in there. Rose panicked, trying to disconnect, but Narvin’s fingers had locked around hers in an iron grip out of instinct to prevent a mental tear from a sloppy exit. The amount of damage that could be done by tearing their minds apart, to both of them...</p>
</div><div>
  <p>After several minutes he was finally able to find the exit and ran for it, leaping out of her mind and all but launching himself across the room in the process to get away from her.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Sorry!” She said weakly. “I didn’t realize, I didn’t think-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“No, no that- that was as much my fault as yours, it didn’t even occur to me to warn you that that-” he drew in a shuddering breath and made an effort to pull himself together. “It’s a good job you’re already bonded, Rose. A connection like that could have forged an accidental connection that even a seasoned telepath such as myself would have been hard-pressed to avoid in the confusion. My mind actually <em>tried </em>to forge that connection, in fact, and got burned by your torn bond. Count yourself lucky. It would have taken a long time for me to undo that damage.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Don’t touch people without gloves,” she mumbled. “Check.” For the first time, genuine pity made its way into Narvin’s expression as he scooted a tad bit closer and laid a hand on her shoulder.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“In the meantime, yes. A long term solution is, of course, to learn to shield your mind.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Why are you so nice to me all of a sudden?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...I don’t in any way want to open myself up to a comparison to James Stone.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Saw that, huh?” She swiped at her nose and he grimaced.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“On accident. Yes.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Well. Thanks. I guess.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>~§§~</p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>It wasn’t that he was doing anything particularly important when he felt it that made him resent it, not exactly. It was the fact that he had to feel it in the first place, the raw panic negating any higher brain function and condensing everything into channeling an influx of adrenaline as fight mode aggressively kicked flight and freeze under the console and wrenched the controls to take him where he needed to be. It was the raw fear in the necessity of such a response. It was the fact that until the moment he’d felt it he hadn’t been aware he was physically capable of feeling that way, because the necessary reason for that response hadn’t happened in his timeline yet.</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>He’d heard stories, of course. Time Lords randomly getting up out of High Council meetings and grabbing the nearest ship only to return afterwards knowing what had happened just long enough to explain before their temporal instincts forced the memories automatically behind a block. At first, he’d wondered if it had ever happened to him before and he hadn’t been able to recall, and he’d heaved a sigh of relief to know that it hadn’t.</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>Sure, he’d...well. There had been plenty of occasions where the memories of prior encounters had unlocked as a new encounter was made. But never like this. Never in this way.</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>It just made some sort of twisted sense that his experiencing a Bond Call would happen for the first time ever during the Time War.</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Boots crunching on loose, pale gravel, the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS in the middle of an abandoned minimalist town square. The Bond Called to him from the ground and he set up a scan on his Sonic to register for the unique bio readings of his future Bond Mate, gritting his teeth as his frown turned to a decidedly dangerous scowl when he picked up her readings directly beside those of a Male Time Lord. Several humanoids around as well, not humans per se but a mixed offshoot from a colony that had intermingled long ago. Readings on the planet indicated it was supposed to be abandoned, but data on the ‘former’ inhabitants showed they were a variation of original Earth Puritans and the Doctor could rightfully say he wasn’t surprised to find that not all had left.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>There must have been a bit of the Oncoming Storm in his eyes - or a lot - because the villagers parted and jumped out of his way as he descended into their fallout shelter and strode right toward what was obviously a makeshift cell. Jerking the door open, he was met with Narvin and-</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Arkytior,” he breathed softly, not noting either her confusion or Narvin’s in-drawn breath of understanding as he immediately knelt in front of her and pressed his fingers against her temples seeking connection. He was so single-minded in his quest to check for damage that he didn’t notice Rose’s shiver as their Bond reconnected in her mind, his connection from the future reaching backwards to fuse against the torn and frayed end of her severed link. Nor did he notice that there were no shields to prevent him from entry; all he saw was the disorganized chaos in her mind and pain.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Doctor,” she whispered back. She said it like a prayer as she collapsed into his chest, his arms immediately wrapping around her as he forewent the fingers and pressed his temple directly to hers.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I know, I’m here,” he murmured, carefully wading through the chaos and paying special attention to their Bond before attempting to clean as best as possible, ordering things in the way he was familiar with them being ordered from their prior encounters. He could sense her confusion as she hesitantly joined him, clumsily following his movements in a way that made his hearts clench. She was just so... insecure. “What did he do to you?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Who?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Narvin.” She tensed and immediately moved to douse his hot anger with soothing cool over the Bond.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“It was my fault, I didn’t realize-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“He tried to Bond with you.” His voice was tight, territorial waves emanating from his presence in her mind as he made sure to touch every corner of it. Not in a claiming way, the Bond did that well enough on its own, but in a way that clearly said ‘none else need go looking.’</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“She was unshielded,” Narvin quipped from his seat on the crate, shifting nervously as the Doctor withdrew from her mind and glared at him with eyes of dark blue fire.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“And you thought you’d just make yourself at home.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>This incarnation seemed to be a contradiction of itself, Rose thought dazedly. The soft caress of his mind, his thoughts, the lovely cadence of his smooth, quiet, cultured voice and the gentle press of his fingers. He wore the clothes of a Victorian gentleman, a fir green velvet coat, a silk cravat, a waistcoat. But the cravat was tied tiredly into a shape more reminiscent of an ascot, the waistcoat unbuttoned and seeming to hang by threads, the velvet burnt and singed at the cuffs and covered in ash and dirt. The pants were gray, worn, the hunting boots scuffed and caked in mud from the steel tipped toe to the knee. Fluffy, curly chestnut hair hung limply just past his ears and there were stress lines covering his handsome face. Knowing how Time Lords went about aging, she knew that those lines had not been present before the catastrophe that had come to his front door.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Through their connection, she could feel the intense rage of the Storm inside of him that wasn’t visible save for his eyes in an otherwise calm exterior. His voice had pitched low, dangerous, and while she had very little idea of why he was so angry Narvin seemed to understand perfectly.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“It was an accident,” Narvin said quickly. The Doctor glanced at him before concentrating on removing his coat and rolling his sleeves up. He started a slow walk as Narvin backed out into the hallway, moving toward him.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“What Regeneration are you on?” He asked calmly. Narvin actually whimpered, paling as white as ash.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I lost- my- my Symbiotic Nuclei don’t-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Hey, hey leave ‘im alone,” Rose called, standing and quickly moving after them to wrap her arm around that of the Doctor’s. He froze when their fingers twined together automatically, eyes widening.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Where are your shields?” He asked sharply, Narvin temporarily forgotten. Rose bit her lip.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I don’t have any. I never have.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Of course you have, Kit. You’ve-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Why’re you calling me Kit? My name’s-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Ah, Causal Loop,” Narvin said quickly, cutting her off. The Doctor swallowed and nodded, pinching his nose before exhaling loudly.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I call you Kit, my nickname for the name you gave me when you introduced yourself,” he said slowly. “Which is Arkytior.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Which, before you ask, is a type of white flower akin to an Earth Rose,” Narvin added before flinching as the Doctor glared at him and slunk off toward the town square on the surface.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You’ve never met any version of me but the one you Bonded with, have you?” The Doctor asked quietly. Rose shrugged, mulling over her new pseudonym and realizing it really wasn’t all that much of a pseudonym at all. Bit obvious, really, entirely hiding in plain sight. But she’d have to use it, because he didn’t know her true name.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You regenerated before we Bonded, but we’d been romantic partners for a little bit before that happened...” she bit her lip again and he frowned.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“What are you wearing??”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Funny story, but I kinda woke up from a three week healing coma in the middle of nowhere, naked-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Narvin!” The Doctor called, chasing after the other man. “Narvin, I want to have words with you!”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I didn’t see her I swear!”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Swear it on what!? You’re CIA, you don’t believe in anything to swear upon! C’mere!”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“<em>Help!</em>”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“This is gonna be a long day,” Rose sighed, plodding tiredly after. It didn’t escape her notice that the farmers were cowering in the hallway. Throwing her head and shoulders back, she followed them outside to find Narvin crouching on top of the TARDIS as the Doctor stalked the base like a caged tiger, waiting for his chance to strike. “Oh for- Doctor, leave ‘im alone!”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Unlikely.” The Doctor stopped, reaching into his coat pocket, and produced a broom which he used to try and knock Narvin off the top like an unruly house cat from atop the kitchen fridge. “Get down from there!”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Kit, <em>Help!</em>”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Don’t look to her for help, you’re dealing with me right now!”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Kit! Kit Help!”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You barely know her!” <em>Whack </em>went the broom.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“She’s a neutral party!” <em>Whack whack whack. </em>“Ow!”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You’re acting like my baby brother Tony, and he just hit his terrible twos!” Rose groaned. She then continued speaking when the bickering paused. “Actually, I think he behaves better...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You have a brother?” The Doctor asked, entire face lighting up in a way that made him seem centuries younger. The broom was forgotten and Narvin heaved a sigh of relief before sliding off the top of the TARDIS in the distraction, slinking off out of town somewhere. “I have a brother-in-law?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“If you don’t mind having human in-laws, anyway,” Rose laughed nervously, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear. His head tilted slightly in confusion.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Why would they be human?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Well... I kinda... was one, less than a month ago. I was trying to get back to you, and something went wrong with the device, and I woke up three weeks later as a Time Lady.” She started rambling as his expression fell slack with shock. “I mean, it really was an accident, Narvin didn’t do anything except forget to tell me about intra-species touch telepathy, and why would he bother telling me something like that, it wasn’t either of our faults that he fell into my head like he did when I didn’t have any shielding or realize that just touching him skin to skin would do that, I mean-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>She fell silent as he lightly but firmly held her jaw and tilted her head to stare into her eyes, swallowing and blinking at whatever he found there before letting her go.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I really need to get you to the med bay for scans and to help you build your shielding,” he murmured faintly, shoulders drooping as he continued to stare at her in awe. “You are... impossible.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Impossible is just another way to say ‘just a bit unlikely,’” she whispered back.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>~§§~</p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em> <span class="u">Two Hours Later...</span></em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p>It wasn’t that Narvin disliked the Doctor in any sort of malevolent way. They had their differences, sure, but he didn’t want to see the man dead, particularly because he had developed an unfortunate worry over Rose’s mental well-being as a side effect of having been inside her head. And not in a romantic sense, as the Doctor made her happy - how that was possible Narvin still had no idea - but in an odd sort of surrogate elder brother way that made it impossible for him to know how to react as he had never and cause to act in such a capacity.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>The concept wasn’t unpleasant. In fact, he found he somewhat enjoyed the idea of it, though it was clear Rose wasn’t looking for any sort of elder sibling. He didn’t even want to bring it up, really. He wasn’t <em>that </em>interested in acquiring those duties. In short, his brain had no idea what it wanted except that it felt bad for what Rose had been put through. But back to the matter at hand.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>You see, Narvin was quickly becoming annoyed by the Doctor’s repeated suggestion that he act as bait to the armada of Daleks that had descended upon the planet.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>No one seemed to grasp the concept of a CIA report specifically stating the planet needed to be evacuated because it was about to become a Dalek testing site...</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p>In the meantime, it seemed as if Rose were slowly acclimatizing to her new existence as a Time Lady. Granted, the Doctor was making a tremendous effort to show her how things needed to be done or to tell her what some of her senses meant, and he had to admit that the man was almost touching in the way he looked after his Bond Mate with the greatest of concern.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>Tell anybody he thought that and they would mysteriously vanish.</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p>All the same, Narvin could see that they matched one another well, and even in his past with her compromised in an unfamiliar body the pair played off of one another and took cues from one another like a seasoned team, and that had nothing to do with the Bond they shared so much as they fit one another in a way that made them balanced.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Currently, they were attempting to find a way to get the Puritans inside the Doctor’s TARDIS and off-planet. The problem with that was that the Daleks knew that the Doctor was nearby because he never changed the exterior design of his ship, and that made them angrier than a whacked hive full of hornets.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Why don’t <em>you </em>act as bait?” Narvin spat, the seventh time the suggestion had been made finally causing him to snap. The Doctor folded his arms over his chest and glared at him.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“What, and leave you alone with Kit? Fat chance. I thought your people were supposed to be smart.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Which is why I’m suggesting that they’ll be more interested in you than some random CIA agent.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Know a lot about Daleks, do you?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“As much as the next Time Lord.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“So less than me, then-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Doctor, just go, or I’m gonna go for you,” Rose sighed. The Doctor stiffened at that and left their hiding place without a word. As soon as he was out of earshot she turned to Narvin. “What’s a Bond Call, and why does it seem to be making him so antsy?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“A Bond Call happens when the Bond is threatened,” Narvin explained. They both peered over the top of the embankment and watched the Doctor’s progress uneasily. “Like a sort of ah... SOS, I believe is an accurate Earth descriptor. It gets sent to the version of your Mate who is temporally and spacially closest to you, regardless of whether or not that version is from the past, present, or future. They’re very serious things, Bond Calls. It means someone is assaulting your Mate. What happened between us was extremely painful for both parties involved and accidental, but in any other circumstance the aggressor would feel no pain as they did it with malevolent intent. It usually requires battering down someone’s shields first, making it all the more painful.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“So he basically got a Rose-specific ‘I’m being assaulted’ 999 call.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...Yes?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’m gonna owe him a major apology when this is all over, poor bloke. Not his fault I didn’t understand what was going on, I got mad at him for very reasonably overreacting...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’m not sure <em>anything </em>that man ever does can be classified as ‘reasonable,’” Narvin muttered. They both winced as ‘The Chicken Dance’ started blaring over what was obvious the town speaker system, used for community announcements. It was all very Cold War readiness community reminiscent, separated from the rest of civilization in a dystopian setting. No, not dystopian... utilitarian. As such, such a song was extremely out of place.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“What on Gallifrey is he thinking?” Narvin groaned. ‘The Chicken Dance’ played on, a sick and demented ditty more properly applicable for use in a torture room than anywhere else, yet terribly still out of place in such a dismal environment. It definitely served to annoy the Daleks though, as they left the TARDIS to go and investigate the broadcasting tower.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Rose scurried down into the tunnels to bring the people up and Narvin darted inside the TARDIS, actually begging her in verbal Gallifreyan to help him out as he was well aware she operated for no one without either brute force or unless they were the Doctor. He received a trilling sort of raspberry in response and he sighed.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Pot and kettle, you and your pilot being equally rude,” he muttered. The doors burst open as Rose ushered the people inside, the entire gothic interior brightening at her presence. The TARDIS actually <em>sang </em>as the ceiling burst into a projection of the universe, the focus on the Rose Galaxies. Rose herself actually grabbed Narvin by the shoulders and shoved him out of the way as she began programming the console. “Hey! At any rate, how do you know-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“What part of ‘I looked into her Heart and now we’re the best of friends’ did you not understand?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Ah. So pot, kettle, and cast iron frying pan,” Narvin said with a grimace, eyeing her over and silently wishing he were somewhere else. “You can hear her, speaking?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Yeah, I know, I’m weird, I’ve always been able to after Bad Wolf,” she growled. “The Doctor taught me to fly after that and I’m her secondary Pilot. Now shut up so I can concentrate.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’m understanding why you two Bonded more and more.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Oi!”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Take it as a complement, Kit,” the Doctor called as he raced through the doors. They slammed after him and Rose threw the dematerialization lever, sending them into orbit above the planet. “Hang on, are we cloaked?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Middle of a Dalek fleet, I thought it was best,” Rose said sweetly. He grinned at her and Narvin stifled a groan of annoyance. It was just too... too... <em>syrupy</em>. Her voice softened. “The TARDIS says that the rest of the planet is empty. When everyone else got evacuated, this lot didn’t have communication with the outside world and missed the order.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Meaning I can safely tell the High Council that this is a confirmed target they can bombard without guilt,” Narvin summarized, adjusting the cuffs on his uniform. “And seeing as overstaying my welcome will only increase the Doctor’s ire toward me, this is where we will part ways. Arkytior, it’s been a pleasure. Doctor, not so much.” The Doctor was in the middle of opening his mouth to retort when Narvin activated his Time Ring and vanished from the ship.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Right, let’s get this lot to the spot where they deposited the other evacuees,” the Doctor sighed instead, channeling his energy into getting these people off of his ship as quickly as possible.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>~§§~</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You’ve always been Gallifreyan to me, always been a Time Lady,” the Doctor commented lightly as the med bay showed the results of Kit’s thorough body scan to be 100% Time Lady.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“About that...” Kit said uneasily, leaning forward on the bed. “I’m really gonna have to go through all of you, huh?” The Doctor’s shoulders slumped dejectedly and she hastened to continue. “Hey, you know me better than that. I know you do. I’m just a bit worried. There’s a reason I was trying to get back to you in the first place.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“The stars going out,” he finished for her, nodding. “I wouldn’t worry. This entire thing has been orchestrated by the TARDIS... or ah, maybe even a higher power...” he trailed off and ruffled his hair as he grimaced. “And you’ve just now realized that I know far more than I’ve said and nothing I say after will convince you otherwise. I can’t tell you, I’m sorry. You told me that you’d ask, that I had to tell you that you’d figure it out yourself.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“That’s the way it has to be, huh.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Sorry, Hearts. But yes.” He brightened considerably before his next words. “However, I <em>am </em>authorized to teach you on how to be a Time Lady before you leave. You never said anything about that, and to be honest I was never able to tell the difference until today. Which meant you had a <em>very </em>good tutor.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Instantaneously ruling you out as a candidate,” she teased. He feigned affront, the smug smile completely ruining the impression.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You’re exhausted,” he murmured gently, eyes shining as he brushed her hair out of her eyes.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“So’re you,” she pointed out, reaching out to cup his jaw and stroke his cheek with her thumb. “Come to bed? I’m good at keeping nightmares away, me. Like a breathing comfort object.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You’ve always known the Time War was coming,” he sighed. “And you never said anything. I know you couldn’t, but... still. All these centuries, never knowing my own personal Crucible was looming ahead of me. That you were always there as a guarantee that I made it through. That I would have something to make it worth living.” His eyes glazed over. “I can see further than others in this body. My precognition, my ability to sense time. I know how this is going to end. In some ways... I feel like I’ve always known, since the first moment I set eyes on you. You, who I most certainly did not deserve, in your golden brilliance. Why would a Lord of Time ever be worthy of Time’s Daughter, but to serve Time itself above the planet of its Lords...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I became Time’s Daughter to save your life,” Kit said firmly, eyes flashing briefly golden. “I created myself to save you, right here, in this very TARDIS. A Wolf, to howl with the Storm.” The glow faded at about the same time the Doctor was able to refocus on the present, the fog clearing from his gaze. “And then, I apparently made sure you’d never have to live without me once we came together.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“We’ll tackle that in the morning,” he sighed, scooping her up off the cot and walking her down the hallway to their bedroom.</p>
</div><div>
  <p><em>Theirs</em>. Literally, the one that she would share with his future self, right down to seeing his future self’s shoes and ties on the floor and dresser. It had always been that way when she visited, and he watched her helplessly as she moved around the space with complete confidence getting ready to sleep. Both of them in need of a shower, he waited for her to give him direction as to her comfort level. This was a new experience for her, after all, though it wasn’t for him.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>They took turns in the shower, a million miles away from one another as they got clean, their thoughts providing most of the distance. Rose personally appreciated the space he was giving her. He openly referred to her as his mate, his wife, the fact that this occurred in his future merely semantics. As far as he was concerned they had been, were, and always would be married. The Bond in their minds decreed it. To be honest, she felt the same even though she’d never been confronted with the situation before. It was to his comfort level that she would have to pander, really, in her future and his past...</p>
</div><div>
  <p>...The best way to confront the issue would probably be to think of the situation as if he had amnesia, really, if she got more comfortable. He hadn’t seemed to expect that they would share the shower, which said lots as to the limits she set when meeting his past selves...</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Whatever the Doctor was thinking about, it seemed to lighten his thoughts. There was a shine in his eyes that had been absent when she had first seen him, and it made her heart - hearts - stutter with joy to see a tiny bit of that light in such a defeated form. The steam in the ensuite had fogged all the mirrors, but as they dried and dressed, as she brushed out her hair and braided it into a long, tight braid to keep the wetness from soaking her in her sleep... his limp, dusty hair had dried into a cloudy soft mess of chestnut curls that clung damply to his forehead.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Lying on their sides, facing one another in the accustomed spots in the bed, Rose let out a soft sigh and reached over to thread her fingers though those curls and laughed slightly when he grumbled at a snag, threading their hands together and scooting closer so that he was able to flip her in one smooth movement onto his other side. She let out a soft yelp before he curled himself around her, draped an arm over her torso, and promptly fell asleep.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Smiling, she snuggled into his embrace and dropped off as well. She was in her Bond Mate’s arms, and she was home.</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Again, I’m not writing to these verbatim, but sticking close... Also. The next chapters won’t be half as long as this. I merely had trouble meeting all the prompt requirements in this one because the Prologue was so short.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Prompt Requirements:<br/>Rose ruins an expedition in the middle of the Time War that Narvin is conducting into an abandoned Dalek weapons testing planet... at least, it was supposed to be abandoned. </p>
<p>They are soon beset upon by Daleks and are forced to send out a distress call. Eight comes to their rescue and the pair prove to be quite the team. </p>
<p>Eight establishes quite early that she goes by a pseudonym - a white thorned flower on Gallifrey called an “Arkytior.” He affectionately calls her “Kit.”</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. One: Old Long Since</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Special thanks to TugboatG for plot prompts.</p><p>Is this chapter shorter than the previous one? Yes. Was the previous one supposed to be that long? No. In other words, these are not supposed to be very long chapters and are more supposed to be a collection of connected one shots, so please be aware of that moving forward. It’s kind of like if “Long Way ‘Round,” “Songbird,” or “Soulbound” was divided into chapters instead of being one long one shot.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rose clutched the charm on her necklace as she walked down a 1960s London street and ran her thumb over its smooth surface to calm her anxiety. Time travel? Easy. Time travel on her own? She knew enough and now she also knew how to read timelines to avoid mucking things up. Meeting a prior incarnation of her Bond mate and not knowing which one or where he was? Yeah, that was nerve-wracking.</p><p></p><div>
  <p>The four months she had been able to spend with the Doctor’s eighth incarnation had been a blessing. They had both needed the comfort, and it had the added benefit of her becoming more accustomed and acclimatized to interacting with prior versions of him. Her telepathic shields were weak but getting stronger ever passing day from the exercises he had given her to refine them, and she had had a chance to settle into her new Gallifreyan skin. Four months of constant contact with her other half, of being with him when he knew he loved her.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>She had no idea when she was along his timeline, though luckily the bond let her know on instinct which incarnation was which when she interacted with them to avoid giving away too much future knowledge.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>The charm she was wearing was on a chain with her TARDIS key and Bonding Pendant. It was a Gallifreyan temporal focusing crystal that the Lords and Ladies of the Patrexan Chapter often used to clarify their view of future timelines, the closest Earth stone like Amber and carved into the shape of a howling wolf’s head. Unlike the Patrexans, Rose’s use of the charm was to focus her Bad Wolf abilities so that she could materialize at will in the general proximity of the Doctor’s TARDIS to which her powers were connected. Like her soul sister the TARDIS, she was quickly discovering that her precision on such matters was sorely lacking.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>A day and a half in of not finding the TARDIS, and Rose was getting the idea that she’d need to find herself a place to live and a job while she waited. Oh, she’d tried to move on, but her ability to ‘apparate’ for lack of a better term was entirely subject to the whims of the TARDIS. And for some reason the TARDIS had her stuck in 1960s London. So, after using the Psychic Paper and the Sonic that the Eighth incarnation of her mate had so wonderfully given her, she was getting herself a substitute teaching job at Coal Hill School as the fill-in art teacher until they could properly hire a new permanent position. She liked art. She was good at art. Teaching it was... well, color theory wasn’t exactly anyone’s favorite activity, but her predecessor had left a curriculum for her to follow prior to their breaking their leg (not her fault). As it was a Secondary school, this meant that she wasn’t required to babysit either, which was a definite plus.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>One student was named Susan Foreman, a girl of sixteen with a dark pixie cut and olive green eyes in a pixie-shaped face. She seemed to excel in the sciences but was woefully-inept at history, and when she came to art she quietly busied herself with her work in a corner on her own. The other students thought she was strange and tended to avoid her. Of course, this just meant that Rose went out of her way to be kinder to the girl, and soon enough Susan was sitting in her room during lunch or staying after school to let Rose tutor her in history. Rose herself wasn’t too good with the academics, but something about the girl made her think she wasn’t a native of <em>Terra Firma</em> and that any help was better than none at all.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>There was also the sneaking suspicion that this was <em>the </em>Susan, because the Doctor had never spoken of his granddaughter’s false last name or where she’d gone to school. He had spoken of Ian and Barbara, but all of the teachers went by their surnames.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Her answer came after two weeks of living in a cheap nearby flat share and walking to the school, because Susan seemed to take after her grandfather - oh yes that was who she was - when it came to keeping her mouth shut about things that would set her apart from humans. She idly said during a lunch period that she missed Gallifrey, her eyes widening slightly as she waited for Rose’s reaction.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Red grass, silver trees, orange sky?” Rose said after a few moments. “Of course you do. Not to mention that the lack of a second sun probably keeps you very cold on Earth.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“How do you-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“My name is Arkytior.” If at all possible, Susan’s eyes widened further.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“So is mine.” She squirmed a bit in her chair, looking worried. “Are you here to take grandfather and I back?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Nope. Hell, if you want help blending in I’ll more than happily support you.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...Why?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Because... your grandfather, in his future, is my Bond Mate,” Rose said, biting her lip and deciding that honesty was the best policy. To her surprise Susan smiled and relaxed.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Oh! I know about you! Grandfather has a brother who often talks of you, but Grandfather insists he’s making it up.” Her nose wrinkled slightly as she laughed. “Great uncle Brax also says that Grandfather fell down a well by accident about a day after he met you and can’t remember anything the week prior to falling.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Sounds like the Doctor,” Rose sighed with fond exasperation, causing Susan to giggle. “Could you take me to see him? I’m sort of hopscotching through his life because the TARDIS is making me, and she won’t let me leave because I haven’t seen him yet.” She shrugged, then grinned and twirled in her pencil skirt and blouse. “<em>Stylish</em>.” Susan giggled again and nodded.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>~§§~</p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>“I want to know what the pair of them are up to, Ian,” Barbara hissed as they watched the art substitute and the student walk off down the street. “We don’t know Miss Tyler and Susan is a very trusting girl-”</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>“I was with you from the start,” Ian interrupted. “But careful now, as to not draw attention.” </em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>The Doctor sometimes wondered how it was that humans had managed to become the dominant species on the planet when they were as unaware of their surroundings as they generally were. The pair of school teachers hiding in the junk piles as he walked into the I.M. Freeman scrapyard were as obvious to him as a bright pink neon signage, and he rolled his eyes as he walked toward the solitary Police Public Call Box and pulled out the key.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>A shout had him pause before a man and woman pushed past him into the TARDIS, and biting back a growl the Doctor huffed and followed them inside. Susan was nowhere to be seen, which wasn’t too out of order considering that she usually fixed herself a cup of tea and some biscuits in the galley while doing her schoolwork, so it was just the three of them. The woman was gaping, the man slack-jawed and stuttering.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Yes, thank you for barging into my home,” he sighed, walking to the console and closing and locking the doors. Panic was setting in, panic that they would alert the authorities and endanger himself and Susan. “It wasn’t at all rude of you.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“But it- it’s bigger on the inside,” the man finally managed to get out.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Ah, and Academic.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Grandfather?” Susan called, eyes widening as she took in her teachers. “Oh... H- hello Miss Wright, Mr. Chesterton...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Where is Miss Tyler?” The woman asked sharply. Susan winced as the Doctor turned toward her and raised an eyebrow, the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching from the corridor.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Um...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Hello, Doctor,” a voice said quietly. A voice he only half remembered, from when he had been an adolescent and his voice was still changing. No wonder he’d said Brax had made the whole story up; the fall into the well on top of the instinctual memory block had combined to erase even the gap of the memories from his mind.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>...Not even counting the fact that she <em>looked </em>like something out of a dream...</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Arkytior,” he whispered, voice suddenly hoarse. Susan was beaming at him as she looked from one to the other, Arkytior herself nervously biting her lip and brushing a wayward strand of bangs behind her ear.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...Susan, could you show Ian and Barbara to the galley please?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Of course!” It was a few moments before they were alone, but once they were Arkytior smiled and nodded toward the pair of chairs off in the corner and they sat.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“What are you doing here?” He asked. She shrugged.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’m trying to find a future incarnation of you, but uh... as you can see it’s not going as smoothly as I’d like,” came the nervous chuckle.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Oh, I don’t mind,” the Doctor said far too quickly, feeling his ears heat as Arkytior smirked.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“No?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I ehm... I thought I’d dreamed you up,” he admitted. “You must understand, Bond Mates are a very rare thing on Gallifrey anymore, and I am far too pragmatic for it to even occur to me that someone might hold genuine love and affection for me. Do you know, my son- as Lord President- put out a Burn order on myself and his daughter Susan when we left Gallifrey? It’s an execution order. No one survives those, but we did because Braxiatel gave us advance warning.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Family’s tough. But you always struck me more as a dreamer than a realist.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Arkytior-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“‘S a mouthful. Just call me ‘Kit.’”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...Kit.” He mulled the short, sharp nickname over his tongue and smiled at the way it made his teeth click slightly. Oh, that was fun to say. “How far ahead are you in my future?” That smile dimmed and his spirits fell.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Far enough, I’m sorry.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“And... and why do you have to return to my future self?” She winced.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“We got separated, badly. I almost died just getting back to this universe, to be honest. I was working with a team of scientists to help me find a way back, and... well. They never would have done it except that the stars started to go out. I mean, that’s important yeah, but I still used it as an excuse to have them help me get home.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“And now that you’re in the correct universe, you need to find the correct me.” The Doctor shot her a wry smile. “You never do anything by halves, do you?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You wouldn’t find me half as interesting if I did.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“True.” There was a pause. “What Chapter are you from?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Unaffiliated. My choice. None of them get to claim me, ‘sides you.” He felt his face warm at that statement and blushed further when the smile she gave showed that was the reaction she’d been hoping for. The lights flickered and she grinned. “I know, Dear. It’s time to go.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Oh, must you?” He wasn’t whining. He really wasn’t.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>...Maybe a little.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>...Okay, a lot.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Kit reached out to cup his jaw and pressed a fond and chaste kiss to his lips, and he was all too happy for her awareness of his comfort level regarding such a thing as she withdrew, his eyes fluttering closed at the loss of her body heat.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Love you, Doctor.” The words faded, almost on an echo, and when he opened his eyes he was only vaguely surprised to no longer find her there. She always seemed to leave as suddenly as she appeared.</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Prompt Requirements:<br/>Rose is investigating why she landed where she did and goes undercover as an art teacher at Coal Hill School, and has to tutor a student excelling in everything but history. Her name is Susan, and she is most definitely not what she seems.</p><p>The Doctor worries she was sent to retrieve them and bring them back to Gallifrey.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Six: An Affair of Inconvenience</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Special thanks to TimeLadyHope for plot prompts.</p><p>This is. This. I. Hope I hope you realize you gave me the perfect conditions for a coffee shop AU- </p><p>I am in fact shooting daggers at Six for dragging me into Hipster Hell... your prompt made no mention of a coffee shop AU but he saw the parameters and ran off with them while cackling like a deranged lunatic... I have never done a Coffee Shop AU before but am somehow not surprised that it was Six who managed to somehow make it semi-canonical as he dragged us all into the Forsaken Lands...</p><p>(Also. Just to be clear. The Lady Doth Protest Too Much because Coffee Shop AUs are a guilty pleasure she doesn’t admit to). 😉</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rose Marion Tyler had been working in the local university coffee shop for the better part of three weeks waiting for Jack and the Doctor to show up and take her back to the TARDIS. Sheffield, England, in 2000 was nice and all (and easy to blend in at because of how close it was to her home Time), but since she was already alive in this time period she’d been having to go by a Pseudonym the entire time as Marion Prentice.</p><p></p><div>
  <p>Having woken up with no memory of how she had gotten there three weeks ago save for remembering dropping Mickey in London just after the Cardiff incident, the Pyschic Paper and what on closer examination appeared to be a different Sonic Screwdriver in her pocket, she could only assume that something had happened on their latest adventure to cause her temporary memory loss.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>She did feel <em>strange</em>, though. Every time she caught her appearance in the mirror she could have sworn her reflection shimmered, like the image of her nineteen year old self was just superficial somehow. Sometimes, she would catch herself looking for a second heartbeat in the wrong side of her chest, could almost feel it, and then her mind would fog over a smidge...</p>
</div><div>
  <p>At any rate. The university was an easy enough place to blend in on what with her age, and no one looked too closely for a coffee shop job when it looked as if she had student I.D.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>The problem with looking like a college student and being the age of a college student was that other college students thought she was a college student. Ergo, she had had so many phone numbers slid across the counter that she’d binned in the last three weeks that she was sorely tempted to file for harassment charges if she had actually been a tuition-paying member of the campus. The only person she wanted that kind of attention from was the last member of his species, thank you kindly, and it was annoying her that she couldn’t say she was in a relationship when her romantic partner was actually nowhere in sight or probably even in the time period. Whatever had happened to separate them would have had to have been severe to keep him away from her as long as he had been.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Which made the attentions of Professor Evelyn Smythe’s personal assistant TA and her reactions to them that more embarrassing. He was a nice man, really he was, and there was something about him that just...</p>
</div><div>
  <p>He was trouble. He never gave his number or even spoke to her, really, but she could feel that penetrating gaze from across the shop every once in a while as he graded papers for Dr. Smythe and left his coffee untouched. He wasn’t there for the product then, and the decor left something to be desired. There really wasn’t any other reason. Except...</p>
</div><div>
  <p>He wasn’t being creepy. Not really. He never approached her, and it was actually kind of adorable the way he’d see her noticing that he was watching and blush from ear to nose tip, averting his gaze as if he’d been burned. Clearly, he was trying to summon the courage to say even a simple hello, because he was on a first name basis with literally everyone else in the building aside from her. And, Rose had to admit.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Six foot even, broad shoulders, a head of dark blond hair that was an unmanageable mess of curls he had clearly given up trying to tame, a defining brow and strong jawline. Edging toward portly but balanced by the muscular tautness of his arms and broad chest. Currently sitting in the window box in a reclining position with his long legs stretched out and a laptop balanced on his knees, a slight frown on his face as he chewed on the end of a pen and sighed lightly before marking a test... He was wearing a beat up pair of maroon dress slacks and a thick navy sweater to keep out the autumn chill, a long scarf made of every color of the rainbow (and then about fifty in between) wound about his neck. A discarded khaki jacket had been pushed behind his head as an impromptu pillow, and every once in a while one of his scuffed brown dress shoes would twitch at the toe as he made another red mark.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>It was the eyes that drew her in, though. The bold blue of his eyes held a familiarity in them that made her chest ache for her significant other, but Time Lords in general were a bothersome bunch that had a terrible habit of swanning off when one least expected.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>So, despite her best efforts to avoid the temptation of him in general, Rose found herself making up a mug of tea one rainy day when hardly anyone else had ventured into the shop through the downpour and taking it to him.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Never drink your coffee, figured you might be more a tea bloke,” Rose said softly, trying not to fidget as he startled at her voice and glanced from the steaming cuppa to her face and back again. “Don’t know how you like it but I made an educated guess, and I’ve been told I’m near psychic when it comes to guessing people’s tea preferences.” She crossed her arms across her chest and bounced on her toes as he continued to stare at her and then shrugged. “Nasty outside today, figured we could all use a bit of something to keep us warm. I uh. I need to clean in the back. So.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder and darted back the way she had come.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>John Smith - and he had <em>not </em>gotten his position as Professor Smythe’s personal assistant TA because they were related, it wasn’t even spelled the same, thank you very much - stared after the girl that haunted his dreams for a few more moments than he realized was deemed appropriate and heaved a mournful sigh before accepting her tiny olive branch and tentatively sampling it. Immediately his eyes fell closed with a contented, happy little purr of delight to find she had hit his tastes spot on at a simple guess, reveling in what was quickly turning out to be the most perfect cup of tea he had ever indulged in.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>He mentally referred to her as his Flower. There was no call for it, really, but the name ‘Marion’ on her name tag seemed to suit her ill in a way he couldn’t quite put his finger on, like an itch at the back of his mind. And there it went again, that urge to follow her as if connected by an invisible tether no matter what, that skipping in his chest that sometimes made it feel as if he had two hearts instead of one.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>It had, quite literally, been love at first sight, and until entering the coffee shop that first day of work he had actually held the view that love was nothing more than a series of body chemicals activating on the baser instincts of procreation and community bonding. He’d published a paper on it earlier in his academic career, as a matter of fact. But oh, how wrong he could be. Merely hearing her laugh had set his palms to sweating, her smile - and he somehow felt she had a special one just for him that he had never seen yet knew existed - making it hard to breathe.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Never before had he considered the idea of reincarnating soulmates, who found one another from one body to the next, with any such serious contemplation. But that morning it was all he could ponder on. Kismet. Fate, destiny, however you wished to call it.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>John, being the coward that he was despite his bombastic personality and outspoken nature, had been entirely incapable of approaching her for an entire three weeks after, and it was finally Marion who had broken the odd little stalemate with a peace offering in the form of tea. It was a clear invitation to talk, because if he wanted a refill that required specifically seeking her out to make it for him. Which, of course, was an entirely terrifying prospect. But it was too rainy outside to venture out without immediately becoming drenched, so his only choice was to sit in the coffee shop nursing a fantastic mug of tea and criminally letting it go cold or properly drinking it and then asking for more like little Oliver begging, hands outstretched, for seconds.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>He’d always been a friend of Dickens, so he gnawed at the side of the ceramic mug a bit with his teeth as he drained its contents and sighed before standing with a stretch and walking to the counter. The girl at the register, Tess, smiled invitingly at him and leant forward conspiratorially.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Marion’s taking inventory, but I can switch with her.” She winked and John felt his face heat. Had he really been so painfully obvious that Marion knew and was possibly avoiding him? Before he could summon the courage to ask Tess left, her raven ponytail swishing behind her as she disappeared behind the curtain. A few moments later Marion reappeared, her hair a mess, and he absently leant forward to brush it behind her ear. They both froze as his fingers accidentally caressed her temple, images of molten gold eyes and platinum-striped honey hair flashing through his mind before he jerked his hand away and shoved both of them into his pockets with a wince.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’m sorry, Kit, I just-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“What did you say?” Marion asked sharply.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’m sor-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“No, Kit. You called me Kit. Why did you call me that?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...Ehm...” Her shoulders slumped slightly and then she smiled.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Sorry. I just- I’ve kinda been waiting for someone to show up.” She grabbed his mug and bustled about as she poured and mixed a fresh cup.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Not that I wouldn’t be irreparably crushed if you said yes, but that wouldn’t happen to be a boyfriend by any chance, would it?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“He’d hate to be called that, but yeah, my partner and a best mate of ours.” He couldn’t keep the disappointment out of his expression as she turned around and winced when she saw it, but he accepted the peace offering with a soft ‘thank you’ and slunk back to his little nook.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Rose bit her lip as she watched him go and sighed, checking the clock every few minutes as he finished his drink, returned it to the counter in an act of consideration that showed he’d appreciated the gesture, and then gathered his satchel and coat and made ready to go out into the downpour. He did not, however, appear to have an umbrella.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Go, I’ll clock out,” Tess hissed, and Rose jumped.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“But- it was supposed to be <em>your </em>early night,” she protested, wincing as John paused under the awning and stared forlornly out from under his shelter. His mess of curls were immediately flattened to his skull, giving him the appearance of a drenched labradoodle, and she bit her lip again. No matter how hard she tried to ignore her attraction to him it was proving to be annoyingly magnetic, and not for the first time she felt guilty for feeling that way when she knew that the Doctor was as completely gone for her as she had previously thought she was for him. And oh, did she miss him. Leather, jumper, gruff Northern baritone, ears, and all.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“And I’ve read and watched Jane Austen’s <em>Emma </em>like. Five gazillion times?” Tess countered, crossing her arms and dragging Rose from her self-chastisement. “Go on, satisfy my little matchmaker heart. Go. Shoo!”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Fine,” Rose muttered, grabbing her coat and umbrella as she ran for the door.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>John whirled around as she called his name, eyes widening slightly as she ran out into the rain after him and brought him under the protective cover of her umbrella. It was clear from the way he just blinked owlishly at her that he was waiting for the second shoe to drop, and she sighed.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“My life is complicated, but that doesn’t mean you have to catch pneumonia because of it,” she muttered. He flashed a small smile at that and nodded, moving to take the umbrella without asking because he was the taller of the two and as a result it was less of a problem for him to hold it high enough to not catch in his sodden hair. She let him, and they settled into a contemplative silence. “You work with Dr. Smythe?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You have no idea how happy it makes me that someone has finally understood the distinction between a TA and a personal servant,” he chuckled. Rose rolled her eyes.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Pretty sure there are some Profs. who don’t see a difference either, but she’s not one of them. What exactly do you do for her, if you don’t mind my asking? All I know is that she’s in the history department.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’m qualified to do practically everything, my dear.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You sound like the Doctor,” Rose murmured without thinking. He laughed.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Well, I’m certainly trying to earn that distinction, why else would I be here?” He then shrugged when she rolled her eyes. “I’m not being facetious, cross my heart. Evelyn has me do anything that she needs me to do, which just so happens to include practically everything.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You think you’re so impressive.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I <em>am </em>so impressive.” The voice, the tone, the way it was said with a smug confidence rather than a defensive amusement, everything about it was different. And yet, Rose found herself whirling to stand in front of him and halting his progress with a hand to his chest. She shivered when she felt a nervous, rabbiting double samba one on either side of his rib cage and then moved that hand to grasp his chin. Leaning in, she stared into his bold blue eyes which were currently blown wide with surprise. Hidden, deep, she found what she was looking for: centuries making them ageless and aged at once, knowledge spanning entire galaxies burning like a thousand supernovas. He’d only ever mentioned Regeneration once, after seeing her father, when she cried and clung to him after she had lost him, and he’d hastened to reassure her that death wasn’t necessarily permanent. And yet...</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“D- Doctor?” She whispered.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>~§§~</p>
</div><div>
  <p>John couldn’t breathe. In fact, he had dropped breathing altogether when she had come close, something like an illusion crumbling away as she looked into his eyes and he stared back into sudden swirling orbs of molten gold. Long honey and platinum hair fell far past her shoulders in a shimmering curtain, and the reverent stuttered tone in which she had uttered a foreign word to him kept him captivated. The word resonated within him, making him idly wonder once again on the feasibility of reincarnated soulmates, and he knew it to be his. <em>Doctor</em>. Him.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Kit?” He whispered back, that same reverent tone in place, and he watched her eyes widen with dawning recognition in much the same way, he expected, that his own had. “Arkytior. It. It <em>is </em>you, isn’t it?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Her hand left his jaw as if his skin had burned her and he desperately grasped it with his free one.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I- I don’t understand how you can know that name when I don’t even know it myself,” she whispered. He sighed.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Two can play that game, I can assure you, he muttered.” Some sort of instinct was making his fingers twitch, remembering the flash of <em>knowing </em>they had experienced in the coffee shop. “Can I try something?” She bit her lip and nodded, and he let go of her hand to lightly press his fingers against her temple.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>At once they were inundated with <em>The Doctor </em>and <em>Arkytior </em>in a swirling golden torrent that all but drowned the pair of them, and it was all scattered and incomprehensible, but undeniably <em>there</em>, and they both felt the perception filters that had been placed on them shatter and crumble to dust at the contact.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Two hearts beating in his chest, a cacophony of voices he knew to be his past incarnations speaking through disjointed and entirely broken memories, her voice like a Siren Song threaded throughout all of it. Oh, he was the Doctor all right. He was a Time Lord from Gallifrey, in the Constellation of Kasterborous, rather than the Human from Gallifrey, Ireland, Earth.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>And he had no idea what that meant because he had no idea who he was. The rapid turn of the Earth that he could suddenly sense scared him and made him stumble, his fingers slipping from Arkytior’s temples as he gasped disoriented, and he was only more than a little unsurprised to see that her entire body was shaking as she sank to the wet pavement on her knees clutching her hands to her chest, tears coursing down her cheeks. The planet tilted again and he was on his knees too, trying to resist the building nausea the sensation was causing.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“The stars are going out,” Kit murmured, rubbing her arms vigorously as if she couldn’t get warm. “And I’ve been-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“-Hopscotching through my life trying to get back to the version of me you were separated from,” he finished, wincing as more disjointed memories pushed their way through his mind. He blinked. “Evelyn. She- she travels with me. In the TARDIS. I thin-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“She helped me get my job at the coffee shop, they were reluctant to hire me but she had a word with the boss, I didn’t know why.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“She’s been watching after us, but why? Why would she have to do that?” There was a short moment of contemplation before their eyes met, his under a furrowed brow and hers over a bitten lip. “What <em>happened </em>to us??”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>~§§~</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Dr. Evelyn Smythe, tenured professor of history at this establishment, had had one Hell of a three weeks. If she’d thought experiencing all of time and space had been stressful, watching after a - well, she didn’t rightly know what had actually happened so hypnotized fit the bill - Doctor and his apparent future wife when they thought they were human and actually weren’t had been worse.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>So, to see the pair of them march into her office sopping wet from the downpour with some of that Time Lord and Lady presence she’d become accustomed to back, well. She’d never been more relieved. Even realizing that they still didn’t have the full picture- or their full faculties - did little to crush the sudden chipper mood she’d settled into as they sat in front of her fireplace eating her chocolate cake with Arkytior’s tea.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Where do you want me to begin?” She asked eagerly. The couple exchanged an uncertain glance before the Doctor shrugged.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“We don’t rightly know that ourselves,” he muttered reluctantly. “How about where you think best in terms of relevance?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Actually, could you start from when I showed up?” Kit asked. “On our own the both of us are drawn to trouble like magnets, but when we’re together we might as well be setting up a homing beacon asking it to come to us. Whenever I showed up is probably when all this started, yeah?” The Doctor choked on his tea as he tried to stifle a laugh and Evelyn blinked. He was, at the moment, more John Smith than the Doctor, more human in his actions than Time Lord, and the ease and lightness broke her heart. She knew there were centuries that weighed heavily on the man when he was properly himself, centuries that none could shoulder for him but himself, but all the same...</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Well, the Doctor brought me back to university for finals, which you know ended just a few days ago. And you showed up out of nowhere, and he was just pleased as punch that you did, and I heaved a great big sigh of relief that you’d got him out of my office for the day so that he wouldn’t wear a hole in my carpet with his pacing.” Evelyn fixed him with a glare and he shrunk down into the seat a tiny bit, playfully whining when Kit laughed at him. “You came back about two hours later asking if I could get access to the basement of the science building, and, well...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Evelyn?” Kit asked softly as she trailed off and grimaced.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“There was a creature down there, it was trying to feed off of information in the computers you said, and-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“It’s got our memories,” the Doctor moaned, slapping his forehead. “It feeds on information, and what better information than that stored inside the minds of Time Lords?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“What exactly is it though?” </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Ehm... Not sure, Kit. I’m sure <em>it </em>knows what it is if you get my meaning though.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“It’s got those thoughts from you.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Mm.” Kit frowned contemplatively and bit her lip. “It must’ve gorged itself, then. Didn’t expect as big a meal as it got out of us, otherwise we’d have lost all our memories stands to reason.” The Doctor grinned a silly little grin at her that had Evelyn casting her eyes toward the ceiling with a soft chuckle at how tender it was. And tender was not a word that she usually associated with the Doctor, but that was because she had never seen him with Kit before.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Well, we’d best get them back then.” He stood with a flourish, draping his colorful scarf over his shoulder, and twined their fingers together before glancing at Evelyn. “Eh, Evelyn, it would be best if you stay here. While I’m certain it won’t be in a mood to keep our memories - indigestion you know - it might find yours more palatable and we don’t want that.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I should hope not,” Evelyn retorted dryly.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“There are so many places I want to take you after all this is over,” John murmured happily as they used Evelyn’s pass to enter the building. Both had a sense of deja vu as they descended the stairs Into the basement; he paused at the bottom of the steps and sighed. “But I know you can’t stay. You never can.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Doesn’t mean I don’t want to,” Kit whispered. “I always want to stay.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I hate that we’ve wasted so much potential time together.” She smiled slightly and leant up on tiptoe to press a kiss to the side of his mouth, causing flutterwings to move about in his stomach.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Love you. Together, yeah? And I promise I won’t let the TARDIS whisk me off someplace without us getting to spend some time together, okay?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“It’s a date.” They pushed open the door and confronted the creature, which to Rose’s scattered memories seemed like a cousin of the Wire they’d met in 1953 except for the fact that it had a body like that badly rendered Electro from the second Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movie. Well, they made short work of sending it packing with a threat to contact the Shadow Proclamation and the fact that it had become incredibly sick on their memories, all but slamming them back into their heads to get rid of them. Which was the reason they ended up sitting in the TARDIS library with cold compresses on their heads staring at the ceiling while Evelyn graded papers in her office.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind,” the Doctor groaned softly. Kit giggled at that and moved to snuggled against his side, playing with the lapel on his proper patchwork coat with idle fingers.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Honestly? I’ve been run off my feet. This is perfect, I love it.” They both sighed and a companionable silence fell between them.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Why did it make us think we were human?” He wondered. Kit bit her lip.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Beats me. Last time I met one of these things it stole my face and shoved it into a television set. I just think it didn’t want us to be able to do anything about it. Would’ve worked too, if we didn’t have our Bond.” The Doctor chuckled.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“While I can say with all certainty that your saying you had a romantic partner was absolutely crushing earlier this evening, it makes me very happy that you were that committed to me even before we’d bonded.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Speaking of which, can I keep that scarf that you’re never gonna wear again? Souvenir?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’d like nothing better.” He raised her hand and kissed her knuckles before they both settled in more snugly on the couch and let the compresses do the slow work of alleviating their headaches. “I love you so much, Kit.”</p>
  <p></p>
  <div>
    <p>“Love you too, Doctor.”</p>
  </div>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Prompt Requirements:<br/>Six, being hypnotized to think he’s actually human. Rose, forgetting she’s met any Doctors before her Jump. Evelyn, knowing full well they both met one another over a week ago and then everything went pear-shaped.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Four: Tangled Skeins</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Special thanks to TugboatG, the-narwhals-awaken, and Lady_Inari for plot prompts.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I’m calling it Fred,” Rose decided. The Doctor sighed while Romana burst out laughing, frowning at his scarf - now dubbed ‘Fred’ - in contemplation.</p><p></p><div>
  <p>“And just why, exactly, does it need a name?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“It’s long enough it’s become an entity all on its own.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>Now, Rose loved the Doctor. She enjoyed meeting his past companions and, with the exception of getting into a cat fight with Sarah, they always went smoothly. But the fact that this was the Doctor Sarah had traveled with longest, and that he was wandering about with a Time Lady who had actually been raised on Gallifrey, picked at those scabs that had just barely begun to form over her self-worth issues from the days way back when Jimmy had torn her confidence to shreds. Romana was accomplished, pretty, regal, brilliant. She had also Regenerated since meeting the Doctor, and Rose knew quite a bit about how Imprinting worked among their now-mutual species after hearing about it at length from the Doctor she had eventually bonded with.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>None of this boded well for Romana. Not because Rose intended to go out of her way to be snide to the woman, but because the amount of flirting she planned on doing to stake her claim would be in levels that Narvin would probably have fainted at. And if the rest of Time Lord society were as prudish as Narvin - or as prudish as the Doctor had on many occasions told her they were - then it was going to be extremely embarrassing for one Romanadvoratrelundar. Less so for the Doctor, and definitely not for Rose.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>She was utterly unrepentant.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>First step: flirty banter. Second step: including Romana in the conversation whilst leaning with faux-casualness against the Doctor’s arm as she played with the end of his scarf. Check and check. Which had, of course, resulted in a bet as to how many practical uses the object in question had. The Doctor thought that there were many, Rose and Romana few. Thus, the bet as to how many times it could be used beneficially during an adventure. Which led to Rose referring to the thing as its own entity and calling it ‘Fred.’</p>
</div><div>
  <p>They were on a planet known for its ability to have the most boring amusement park in the cosmos, and the likelihood of the Doctor’s ability to make good on his claim and winning the bet seemed slim.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>~§§~</p>
</div><div>
  <p><em>Are you jealous? </em>The Doctor whispered telepathically. Arkytior jerked slightly from where she had her arm linked with his, their fingers twined together. He nodded slightly toward Romana, who had drawn ahead of them a bit.</p>
</div><div>
  <p><em>She’s- well, she’s Time Lady,</em> Kit replied with a self-conscious bite of her lip. He frowned at her.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>So are you.</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p><em>I- She’s... High Honors, </em>she finally said, wincing. <em>Between you and me, I didn’t- I didn’t exactly... finish. School.</em></p>
</div><div>
  <p><em>Well, it took my second try to get past with a measly 52%</em>, he scoffed. <em>Why would your education bother me? Romana reminds me far too much of my brother.</em></p>
</div><div>
  <p><em>Irving Braxiatel. </em>A glimmer of fond sadness shimmered over the bond. <em>I visited the Collection, once? It felt like the sort of place a man would build to try and fill the gaping holes in his hearts.</em></p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>Not sure I’d go that far. He was known as ‘The Icicle’ at the Academy.</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p><em>Yeah, and I’m known as ‘The Bad Wolf,’ and some people call you ‘The Oncoming Storm,’ just because you have a title doesn’t mean it defines the true you, </em>Kit pointed out. The Doctor blinked, then shrugged, conceding the issue.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>I suppose. But Romana was known as ‘The Ice Maiden.’ Pairs well with ‘The Icicle,’ don’t you think?</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I don’t know who taught you your etiquette, but they clearly didn’t stress the impoliteness of speaking entirely telepathically in a conversation other members of your party cannot hear,” Romana huffed, turning on her heel to glare at them. Her head tilted slightly as she looked Kit over. “What Chapter and House are you, might I ask?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I... shouldn’t say, it might influence the timelines a bit,” came the quiet and awkward answer. Kit tugged on the scarf and grinned. “Let’s find some tests for Freddie here, eh?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...Romana, could you give us a few moments please?” The Doctor asked, concern lacing his tone. Romana looked between them, smiling understandingly, and moved on ahead to give them privacy. Once out of earshot, he guided Kit over to an alcove and spoke softly to her. “Why the lapse in confidence?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I wasn’t from a good area, but I got lucky,” she murmured, chewing the side of her thumbnail. “And my entire life everyone told me to not get airs and graces. I guess it’s hard to quiet the voices I’ve heard in my head, to the point that I meet someone who loves me enough to give me there forever and I still have to ask if they feel like they’re settling...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>The Doctor bent down and kissed her soundly on the lips, stroking his thumb along her temple to offer unconditional love and comfort. She shivered in his grip.</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I cannot lie to you without you sensing it,” he reminded her softly. “Did that feel false? I barely know you, my dearest, yet I am entirely yours even now. Believe that. Believe me.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I love you,” she whispered hoarsely, curling into his arms. The Doctor clung tightly, projecting safety and home.</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Prompt Requirements:<br/>Romana II makes a bet with Four and Rose about how many successful practical uses the scarf can be used for on an adventure. Rose takes her bets seriously, and the Doctor doesn’t like to lose.</p><p>Rose refers to the scarf as it’s own separate entity for the entire duration of the fic.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Two: If I Lie</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>This is one of three simultaneous chapter updates to this fic. All of them are short, but I've been extremely sick for about two months with multiple problems and Finals Week came up during that sick phase. All my energy had to go to that or staying well.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Special thanks to SpiritofEowyn, the-narwhals-awaken, and Lady_Inari for plot prompts.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div>
  <p>If the Doctor had thought that living life without even knowing Arkytior existed was painful, when he <em>did </em>remember her when she eventually showed up in his life again seeing Jamie flirt with her across the town square of Vesaam’s capital city was even worse. She wasn’t reacting to the flirting with any sign of interest, as was expected considering that once a pair bonded they were only ever truly appreciative of their spouse’s incarnations, but it was still enough to set his teeth on edge.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>She wasn’t his bond mate. Not yet. While she had a claim on him, he had yet to make one on her. That didn’t stop their bond from temporarily lighting up his mind with a thousand warm golden sparks or from unlocking some instincts that made him far more territorial over her than he had a right to be.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>And then she looked right at him and smiled a tongue-touched grin that she never gave to anyone else, and he was walking across the square and trailing his fingers along her temple before he even realized what he was doing.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Hey you,” she laughed, ruffling his bangs slightly before trailing her own fingers along his temple in an affectionate greeting. “Jamie says you put your foot in it and got the pair of ya stuck in a talent show?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’m quite good with the recorder,” the Doctor groused, glaring at an extremely perplexed Jamie before turning back to his future bond mate, who stuck her tongue out at him and winked. He couldn’t help it. He gaped slightly.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Arkytior was an eternally-perplexing breath of fresh air. She knew all the Laws of Time and carried herself with confident assurance, but she had this carefree attitude and every word spoken was infused with kindness. She refused to tell anyone her House or Chapter because the political prestige meant nothing to her. She was...</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>...Almost human, really. And very tactile, which was something he’s been raised since a seconds-old Loomling to see as bad and improper. He had remained tactile despite this, almost stubbornly so, and the fact that she reached for him whenever she chose to with reckless abandon made his hearts skip unnaturally in his chest. He’d been too embarrassed in his first incarnation at falling down a well and forgetting the entire week she’d managed to show up in, but now he was left with her smile and feeling unworthy of her love for him.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Doctor?” Jamie inquired softly. The Doctor blinked, snapping out of his musings, and realized that they were both looking at him. Fighting back the blush of embarrassment was substantially harder than it should have been.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Yes?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Kit was just saying that the two of you are married in her past and your future, I was just wondering, why isn’t she with your future self now and is with us instead?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“It’s a long story, and it involves Daleks and Cybermen,” Arkytior responded, the tone of her voice indicating that she didn’t want to be forced to remember the series of events that led to the separation. “I’m working on getting back.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“How long can you stay this time?” The Doctor asked, wincing internally at the pleading way he said it.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Think I can stay long enough to participate in your little talent show act,” she said, raising an eyebrow.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>She had a lovely voice, really. Part of him ached to hear her sing in the lyrical prose of their home language, to hear each and every single chiming Gallifreyan syllable fall from her lips to go with the brief interruptions when she laughed.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>It was truly a shame that the only song they all knew well enough to play together was ‘The Parting Glass,’ because while the lyrics were truly wonderful you could hardly hear them when Jamie played accompaniment on the bagpipes. It was good bagpipes. Very good bagpipes. But the bagpipes were not what the Doctor wanted to hear during this act. He couldn’t summon the energy to care about how his recorder sounded, either. All he wanted to listen to was her. When the accompaniment faded away, she shone and her voice rang.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>And the lyrics themselves... the Doctor couldn’t help but wonder if she had chosen that song specifically for them...</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>
    <em>“But since it fell unto my lot, that I should rise and you should not, I’ll softly rise and gently fall, goodnight and joy be to you all... fill to me the Parting Glass, and drink a health whate’er befalls, then gently rise and softly fall, goodnight and joy be to you all...”</em>
  </p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>~§§~</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You’re quiet, that’s not like you,” Arkytior said gently as they walked along the main road of the small town. They’d left Jamie at the after party of the talent show, where he was enjoying explaining his instrument and his culture to people who were genuinely curious. The Doctor, with his hands stuffed into his pockets, shrugged and kicked at a stone with the tip of his shoe.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“This is all unprecedented, Kit. Time Lords don’t do this sort of thing, hopscotching through the lives of their bond mates before they meet them. Truth be told, few of us ever bother to find a bond mate anymore in the first place.” He sighed. “I’ve never fit in in the eyes of our society and it looks like I never will.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Do you want to? Or have you ever considered that the reason you don’t fit in is because it’s not right, and you recognize that deep down?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“It’s a definite adjustment in thinking, is all I’m saying. You can’t blame me for being apprehensive and a tad bit concerned.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“‘S not my choice to do it this way, you know.” She sounded hurt and a tiny bit angry, and it occurred to him suddenly that he’d come off as accusative. “The stars are going out and the only version of you that can help me is the version that bonded to me. The one that <em>knows me</em>. I love you, I do, but it’s absolute rubbish that I have to hide as much of myself away from you as possible to preserve the timelines when all I want is to be understood by the one person who is supposed to know and love me most.” Kit bit her lip and closed her eyes, taking a steadying breath before falling silent and wrapping her arms tightly across her chest.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I suppose I’m just not used to being loved unconditionally,” the Doctor murmured, sounding every bit as tired and defeated as Arkytior looked. She surprised him by pulling his hand out of his pocket and twining their fingers together, and he sighed as he felt that love firsthand trickle across the bond and warm his thoughts. “To experience the love of the kind you hold for me, to know that I won’t achieve that until later in my life... it’s a special kind of torment, dear hearts. I wouldn’t trade it, but it’s temporary, and I am faced with moments in my future where I shall try and fail to shield myself from it only to lose it again several times over.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>She nibbled on the edge of her thumb and he hung his head.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Doctor...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Time’s up?” He asked, not bothering to hide the bitterness.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...Yeah. I love you.” There was a long, awkward silence, and she quickly pressed a kiss to his cheek before walking off.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“If I were to lie, I couldn’t do so about my reciprocated feelings towards you as well,” the Doctor said softly. Arkytior halted in her steps before resuming them, and he closed his eyes as golden light warmed his senses.</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>If any of you want to hear the song that they performed, you can listen to one of my favorite covers of it here:</p>
<p>https://youtu.be/3hMdoGet2A8</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Prompt Requirements:<br/>Rose and Two go undercover at a talent show only to get upstaged by Jamie on the Bagpipes.</p>
<p>Jamie also flirts with Rose a lot, which irks Two for reasons he isn’t entirely certain.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Nine: Just One Yesterday</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Special thanks to SpiritofEowyn and TugboatG for plot prompts.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div>
  <p>The Doctor barely paused in what he was doing as he sensed Rose enter the console room, hidden deep as he was under the grating.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Do me a favor and hand me the hydro-clasp,” he mumbled, Sonic clutched between his teeth as he wound loose wires around his hands and attempted to fix them. The hydro-clasp was unceremoniously dropped beside him and he grunted in acknowledgement.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Missed you,” she murmured so softly he barely heard it. There was a broken note in her voice that made him automatically tense, and after a good few minutes of cursing under his breath and arguing with the wires he managed to extract himself from under the grating to get a good look at her.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Shimmering platinum streaks in long, waving honey gold hair, soft brown eyes with glowing gold flecks. Oh, he knew who she was all right, but not <em>how </em>she came to be what she was.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“So what do ya want me to call you, then?” He asked flatly, trying vainly to hide the brief flash of shock at realizing he would one day be married to the woman he already loved with all his hearts and failing spectacularly. “Rose, or Kit?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Same thing, don’t ya think?” She retorted, gnawing at her bottom lip in that telltale nervous gesture of hers.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Not from my perspective, it’s not.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...Right. So.” Rose made a point of looking toward the corridor. “Where am I, then?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“On board, actually. Best not let her see you looking... so... unlike the you that I know...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“It wasn’t your fault, it was my choice, and I have no idea why I became this way because of it. And no. I’m not gonna tell you what I mean by that considering you haven’t experienced it yet.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“See, that right there, that understanding of the Laws of Time, that’s what always threw me for a loop with you,” he said conversationally, standing and wiping his hands on his jeans before sitting on the jumpseat. She sat beside him and he could sense the tension and nervousness coming off of her in tidal waves. “It’s very Lady-like, if you get my meaning.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I had a very good teacher,” Rose reminded, smiling softly. The Doctor’s mind went a tiny bit fuzzy when he recalled the comfort they gave one another during the Time War, she learning to be a Time Lady and he basking in her warmth and love as he taught her. “So... What do you say to having Jack distract younger me while we take a day?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Not likely,” the Doctor said immediately, scowling. Rose snorted with laughter and rolled her eyes.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’m yours,” she assured him. “I’ve <em>been </em>yours ever since you took my hand and told me to run. You just have to ask to be mine.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“We’re really that close?” He whispered, eyes closing as he inhaled her scent when she rested her head against his shoulder. “That close to our... to being together forever?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Minus an unexpected separation that I’m working on correcting, but yeah,” she said dryly, annoyed at the situation rather than him. “I won’t be telepathic until your next incarnation, but I’ve always been a touch empath like my dad. Could always sense peoples’ feelings if I touched them.” She twined their fingers together and squeezed. “Even yours.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You know then, how much I... I’m an idiot,” the Doctor decided. Rose burst out laughing and he nudged her off the jumpseat; she merely rolled across the grating and he watched her with a goofy smile.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>He’d never been this lucky in his life, never. To be able to bond and have forever with the woman he already loved with both his hearts, to be lucky enough to do so. To not have to settle for an unwanted political marriage or one made from a horrible causal loop, but to get his forever with someone he wanted to be with. Maybe this was his reward for suffering through a lonely life before.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Or maybe the universe didn’t work like that, seeing as they had been separated after bonding, but Rose was stubborn enough to fight the universe to keep them together and that was enough for him. When the chips were down on who would win, his money was on Rose.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I wanna go somewhere,” the Doctor decided, standing and offering a hand to help her up which she accepted. “I wanna make this a proper date and everything. Don’t think I somehow managed to forget those fancy dinners my last incarnation took you to, Rose.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I liked the quiet evenings in the Butterfly Room best, when we had a picnic and laid under the stars on the grass,” she whispered. He paused in moving about the console and nodded, eyes shining. “You probably don’t have that room anymore.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I do, actually, surprisingly. Just not the kitchen to go with it.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Fish and chips?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You read my mind.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Kinda the point of a Bond,” she sing-songed, prancing down the corridor. The Doctor grinned, then winced when the TARDIS landed heavily on the Powell Estate. A few minutes later a much younger and much more human Rose appeared in the console room with Jack right behind her, and he was unable to suppress the snicker when he saw the tiny braids in the other man’s hair and the sleepy expression on his face.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Where’re we now?” Rose asked excitedly. The Doctor pointed at the console.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Powell Estate. I have to make some repairs and it’ll emit some gas that’s safe for me, unsafe for humans. Thought you could kip at your mum’s, Jack on the couch, and then I’ll be done tomorrow morning and we can be on our way.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Do I have to be on the-”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You’ll be on the couch, Jack,” Rose said, cutting him off dismissively as she grinned at the Doctor and ran back down the hall to pick up some of her dirty laundry. It wasn’t that they didn’t have a laundry room on the TARDIS, but that there was a tradition that the two Tyler women had where they did laundry together and bonded over it, talking about their days. Jackie also liked to feel relevant, and combining the catch-up time with the laundry solved both traveling issues in one go. She returned with her bag only half zipped up, clothes spilling out the opening that she kept shoving inside, and pecked him lightly on the cheek before running out the door.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Ask her out and put me out of my misery,” Jack groaned as he followed after.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Plan to!”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Thank God.” The Doctor followed behind them, which wasn’t unusual. They were used to him grabbing a nearby takeaway and then going back to work on the TARDIS, and true to form they ignored his exit as he headed to Rose’s favorite chip shop. Impatiently waiting for two portions, he power-walked back.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Rose, future Rose, was in the Butterfly room laying on a blanket on the grass when he arrived. She hummed when he approached, accepting the food so that he could sit beside her, and purred as she bit into a crispy warm golden morsel. The sound sent shivers down the Doctor’s spine, as it was a Gallifreyan sound of pleasure or enjoyment for even the most trivial of things, and until this moment he’d resigned himself to never hearing that again. Hearing it now was like simultaneously being stabbed in the chest and feeling the sun shine its warmth upon him, and he relaxed beside her on the blanket to enjoy the picnic and her company.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>They could work on the console with the poisonous gas together later. She was a Time Lady now, after all. He was no longer the last.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>...</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>‘<em>There’s Me,’ indeed.</em></p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Prompt Requirements:<br/>The Doctor initially mistakes Dimension Hopping Rose for her younger self, but then realizes differently. Rose suggests Jack distract her younger self, which makes the Doctor jealous. </p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Theta Sigma: Before Time Runs Out</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Special thanks to GroovyKat and TugboatG for plot prompts.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div>
  <p>Theta Sigma raised his eyes from the sink basin to the mirror and winced at the puffy redness around his eyes, the flush of his cheeks. He scowled and splashed the cool running water onto his face, washing away the salty evidence of tears that had resulted from the taunts he had received in the hallway that morning. Koschei, while his best friend, had a cruel streak in him that came out from time to time, and he’d merely watched some of the older students torment him both with physical jabs and emotional jibes. Theta didn’t much care about having his books knocked from his hands, but it stabbed at his hearts to be forced to do nothing as one of them picked up his sketchbook and rip several pages of his drawings out to crumple them up and throw them out the window.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You okay, mate?” An unfamiliar voice asked from behind him. A <em>woman’s </em>voice. In the men’s lavatory. Needless to say, Theta let out an undignified squeak and whirled about with dripping dark bangs to meet the gaze of a literal temporal golden goddess of some sort.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’m fine,” he snapped, wincing as his adolescent voice cracked at just the wrong moment and swallowing uncomfortably. <em>So close to getting rid of those cracks, so close... </em>He waited a few moments before repeating. “Just fine, thank you. You shouldn’t be here, this is the men’s lavatory.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Is it?” The young woman asked, head tilted slightly to the side as she took in her surroundings. “I never know where I’m going to end up, unfortunately.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Never?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Nope.” She shrugged and looked him over. “Seriously, are you all right?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Less and less so with a woman in the washroom,” Theta said with a frown, crossing his arms and shoving them into the thick folds of his robes under his arms. “Funny how that works, huh?” She rolled her eyes in response and sauntered out the door, letting it swing shut behind her. He scowled as a few minutes ticked by and he was left alone in the washroom, huffing in mounting annoyance when he found her leaning with her back against the wall directly outside in the corridor of the Academy.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Knew your curiosity would get the best of you,” she chirped. “Funny how that works.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Parroting my own words back at me isn’t going to make me like you,” Theta snapped. The mystery woman snorted softly with laughter and shook her head and he gave up at trying to seem intimidating. Clearly she wasn’t falling for it. “Why are you traveling if you don’t know where you’ll end up?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’m looking for my Bond Mate,” she said easily, her smirk slipping into a sad melancholy. It was wrong for that expression to be worn by her, he felt. Doubly wrong for him to cause it even inadvertently. “We were separated and I ended up in a parallel world. I’ve been trying to find my way back ever since, but my method of travel is... dodgy.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Bond Mate?” He blew out a breath. “Those are rare. It’s all ‘political match this, genetic compatibility that.’ No one marries for love on Gallifrey.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Wouldn’t it be nice if they did?” She winked and he blinked as she did an informal bow of welcome, as typical on their touch-telepathic planet to avoid skin contact. “My name is Arkytior.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Theta Sigma,” he stammered slightly, hastening to return the greeting. Her eyes widened slightly before she gave him the most blinding tongue-touched grin he’d ever seen.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Pleasure to meet ya, Theta,” she laughed softly, taking in their surroundings. “Did I land in the Academy? Interesting... I usually land somewhere farther from- never mind. ...So. Um. Where are you off to next? Imagine you’ve got classes.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Nothing I wouldn’t want to skip,” Theta said suggestively, mischief sparking in his eyes. He was bouncing on his toes hopefully. “Have you ever been to the gardens here?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I feel like I’m going to regret encouraging you to ditch school, but sure, lead the way,” Arkytior sighed good-naturedly. He grinned at her and they walked down the large steps toward the gardens, he excitedly pointing out different plants and she allowing him to indulge in his interests. From what she remembered Prydonians were discouraged from studying botany, or at least discouraged from having an opinion on it beyond the technical acumen. Plants were organic and thus dirty (said with the utmost dramatic sarcasm from the Doctor’s Eighth Incarnation).</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Thete!” Someone shouted. Theta groaned, his good mood evaporating in an instant, as one of the elder students in tutor robes approached them with a stern expression on his face. “Not again, Thete. Not again...”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“It’s not my fault that Quences is one of the most boring professors,” Theta groused, scuffing his toe in the packed gravel of the garden path and avoiding eye contact.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“If you wanted to skip class, you shouldn’t go to the same spot every time,” the tutor snapped.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Have you ever considered that the reason I always go to the gardens is because it’s the only place I can find peace, Brax?” Came the tired but characteristically sarcastic reply complete with eye roll.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’m picking up major sibling squabble vibes,” Arkytior commented lightly, raising an eyebrow. Brax gaped, dumbfounded, as Theta bit his lip to contain a chuckle and nodded.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“My elder brother, Irving Braxiatel, Certified Nuisance,” he said with flourish.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Certified Nuisance, huh? That a Lungbarrow trait or just your family?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Hey! I-” Brax blinked as Theta cut himself off and puzzled something over. “I never told you my House.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“No, you didn’t,” she said cryptically. Theta grimaced and glanced at Brax.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“If it’s <em>him-</em>” he pointed at Brax- “my condolences.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Should I be offended?” Brax asked with mildly amused annoyance. Arkytior snickered and shook her head.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“I’m Arkytior,” she introduced. “And yes, you should be offended.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Oh. Well I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s a habit in our family.” Brax folded his arms across his chest and eyed the pair over. “You seem to have the both of us at a disadvantage. You know quite a bit about Thete and myself, yet we know hardly anything about you.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“You know me best in your future.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“Oh?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“What if I were to tell you that you wear a distinguished goatee and a pink fedora hat someday?” Brax’s eyes narrowed as he scrutinized this new information, weighing whether she was messing with him or not and deciding to table it for later.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“And what is our relationship with you in this hypothetical future?”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“A future Bond Mate never kisses and tells,” she teased, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and flashing a tongue-touched grin in Theta’s direction. Brax coughed as the pieces connected and stifled a wheeze as Theta accepted her statement with youthful ignorance and innocence. “Speaking of which... I have to go, people to meet, places to see. See you later, Theta.”</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Theta, who had zoned out for the conversation when Brax began his interrogation, heard his name and turned his head toward her at the exact same moment that she bent down slightly to kiss him with platonic affection on the cheek, eyes widening comically when their lips briefly connected instead. Arkytior went entirely red in the face at this and nibbled the side of her thumb as she stepped away from a suddenly-statuesque Theta, glancing at a thunderstruck Brax and waving awkwardly before scampering off around a hedgerow.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“See- see you,” Theta stammered, gaping. His jaw clicked as he snapped his mouth closed and turned toward Brax. “Did I miss something?” He asked in a small voice.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>“...I think... that <em>that</em>, was your future Bond Mate,” Brax replied in an equally small voice.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>A day later, Theta accidentally fell down a well and forgot the entire week.</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Prompt Requirements:<br/>Rose materializes in the men’s lavatory just as a late teens (biologically speaking) Theta Sigma is washing away evidence of the taunts he received in the corridors away at the sinks. She does not know who he is until the very end, and she inspires him to take a different path. </p>
<p>The parting kiss does not go the way she expects it to, and Rose has tons of fun messing with young Irving Braxiatel (inspiring such things as messing in his timelines, facial hair, and the odd pink fedora or two...)</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>DISCLAIMER: ALL RIGHTS GO TO THE BBC, DOCTOR WHO, AND ANY OTHER KNOWN OR POSSIBLE AFFILIATES. THIS WORK IS NOT FOR PROFIT AND PRODUCED PURELY FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES</p><p> </p><p>Each story was given suggested prompts by members of my Discord Server.</p><p> </p><p>The theme for this story is “Don’t Think Just Run” by Beth Crowley and can be found here:</p><p>https://youtu.be/f1GXJksuvDk</p></blockquote></div></div>
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